EIP: The Emerging Infections Program network is a national resource for surveillance,
prevention, and control of emerging infectious diseases. It was established in 1995.The
EIP is a network of 10 state health departments and their collaborators in local health
departments, academic institutions, other federal agencies, and public health and
clinical laboratories; infection preventionists; and healthcare providers.
Endogenous flora: Bacteria that naturally reside in or on the body.
Epidemiology: The study of diseases to find out who is affected, how disease is spread,
trends in illnesses and deaths, what behaviors or other risk factors might put a person at
risk, and other information that can be used to develop prevention strategies.
Epidemiologists use surveys and surveillance systems to track illnesses, and they often
investigate disease outbreaks.
Erythromycin: An antibiotic used to treat certain infections caused by bacteria, such as
bronchitis, diphtheria, Legionnaires’ disease, pertussis (whooping cough), pneumonia,
rheumatic fever, sexually transmitted diseases, and infections of the ear, intestine, lung,
urinary tract, and skin. It is also used before some surgery or dental work to prevent
infection.
Extended-spectrum antibiotic: An antibiotic that has been chemically modified to attack
additional types of bacteria, usually those that are gram-negative.
Extensively drug-resistant (XDR): Resistance to nearly all drugs that would be
considered for treatment. Exact definitions for XDR differ for each type of bacteria.
Fluconazole: An antifungal drug in the azole class.
Fluoroquinolones: Broad-spectrum antibiotics that play an important role in treatment
of serious bacterial infections, especially hospital-acquired infections and others in
which resistance to older antibacterial classes is suspected. Increasing resistant to
fluoroquinolones is making them less effective.
Fungus: A single-celled or multicellular organism.Fungi can be opportunistic pathogens
(such as aspergillosis, candidiasis, and cryptococcosis) that cause infections in people
with compromised immune systems, such as cancer patients, transplant recipients, and
people with HIV/AIDS.Fungi can also be or pathogens (such as the endemic mycoses,
histoplasmosis and coccidioidomycosis, and superficial mycoses) that cause infections
in healthy people. Fungi are used to develop antibiotics, antitoxins, and other drugs
used to treat various diseases.
GISP: The Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project was established in 1986 to monitor
U.S. trends in antimicrobial susceptibilities of strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the